What Would You Do With $2,000?

I actually enjoy vlogging. You wouldn't know it by how infrequently I vlog, but trust me, I do.  I'm part of a group of women now who vlog weekly on prompts suggested by the members.  This week the topic was suggested by Jessica from Found The Marbles.  She asks:

If you had $2,000 to spend on YOURSELF, where would you  go and what would you buy?


This was far tougher for me to answer than I thought it would be.  Would you believe that I spent four days thinking about my answer, not because I had so many ideas but because I couldn't decide upon one.  So how would you spend $2,000?  Tell me below!

I Prefer To Think It's My Guardian Angel

This past Friday was a perfect example. My dad was chaperoning Mister Man on a field trip so was driving to school, which meant Little Miss was riding the bus instead of me having to drop her off, too. My day - the productive part of my day, that is - would start at 8:13 intead of 9am. I was rather looking forward to that extra hour.

As Little Miss's bus left, I decided to do a couple quick things around the house, emptying the dishwasher and putting away laundry, before I headed out to teh gym as I'd originally intended. I left the house at 8:33, not quite as early as I'd hoped considering the errands I needed to run later in the day.

As I drove out of the neighborhood, my phone rang. It was my dad calling. Uh-oh. School hadn't even started yet, and already my dad was having trouble with his first chaperone experience.

Ummm, did Violet by chance leave her lunch and backpack in your house or car? he asked.

I sighed and turned around in my seat just enough to see the familiar flowered pattern of her backpack sitting on the middle seat in my car. Ahhhh yep, it's in my car. I'll come drop it off, I groaned internally, knowing that I'd be pushing it to get to school and drop it off before the buses for the field trip left.

I made it to the school a little after 8:50 and just before the students headed out to their buses. I passed the backpack - and its completely disposable lunch inside - over to the school and then headed out to the gym.

I had a benefit luncheon that started at 11am. Getting in a full run and the rest of my workout (ummm in addition to the shower that I definitely needed) was not going to happen. I didn't bag it entirely though. I went to a different location of my gym and got my run in before showering as quickly as I could. I made it to the benefit only a few minutes late and had a great time.

As I was headed to the benefit, I thought about how I had a few choices about how to handle the interruption to my day. I decided to be happy that I wasn't halfway to the gym at the time or already at the gym. My gym is 20 minutes in one direction - so had I left as soon as Little Miss had gotten on the bus as I'd originally planned, I would have been either pulling into the parking lot or already working out. Even if I was only on my way to the gym, the school is 20 minutes in the near opposite diection from the gym - getting to school before the field trip had left would have been impossible.

So it was a good thing that I had procrastinated slightly in getting to the gym because I could get the backpack and lunch to Violet. It would have been nice had she not put her backpack in my car to begin with, but we'll focus on the fact that I could fix it.

And the gym I ended up going to? It turns out that it's closer to where I had my benefit lunch by a ways, so it helped me have less driving to do. And with those realizations, I was able to focus on what I could do that morning - I got a load of laundry in! I emptied the dishwasher! I ran! I got the backpack dropped off! I made it to the lunch! - and not on any of the negative part of it.

I started thinking about this as I drove to the lunch. Those days when I just miss a stoplight and have to wait? Or when I end up leaving the house five minutes later than I expect? Or when a friend calls and has me changing plans at the last minute? How many of those little changes keep me safe and sound? How many accidents or muggings or incidents have I unknowingly avoided because a little guardian angel was looking out for me?

Maybe it's silly, but that's the outlook that is going to keep me sane and happy. That silver lining exists somewhere, and I'm going to keep searching for it.

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If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands!

I was reading a column a few weeks ago on personal finance from The Motley Fool. Or at least I think it was the Motley Fool. I've just spent the last hour or so searching for the article and failed miserably. I found it last week, but apparently my google skills are failing me right now. If any of you can find this and point me to it so I can link it up, please do.

Anyway, back to my point. Pretend I have one.

Sometimes you read something, and it sticks with you. There was a line in the column that I will unfortunately have to paraphrase that I keep coming back to. It keeps making me think, and it's really powerful to me.

Essentially, the point of the author was that he sold a stock at a modest profit. He locked in that profit, and in order to be happy with what he's doing and -- really -- happy with life, it's important to learn to be content with the return you have rather than regretting if maybe you could have made a little bit more. If you're happy with earning $100 when you sell something, you can't let the fact that maybe you could have made $105 make you miserable.

And it isn't just with selling stocks. To me, this is applicable in so many facets of life. Life isn't about being perfect. It's about learning to be happy with what you have. You don't have to have a bigger, better (fill in the blank).

Can you imagine how different our lives would be if we could learn to be happy with what we have? How much less general crabbiness would be out there. Cheating on spouses would decrease dramatically. People wouldn't feel the need to push themselves into debt.

And that regret we feel after making decisions? Gone. We were happy with the choice we made at the time we made it, and that's good enough. How freeing is that?

I'm doing my best to take this philosophy to heart. It's really hard to do sometimes, but I'm working on it. And you know what? It's making me happy. I really wish I could find the actual article to share with you, as I know I'm not saying it quite right.

Think about it though, and let me know if it speaks to you. Or share with me the philosophy that's sticking with you. I could use a few more mantras outside "No blood, no foul!"